The scene is the average high school. Hallways full of lockers. The classrooms full of students. In second hour journalism class, we find the main character. An 18 year old girl, Amanda. The average height, brunette, dressed in sweatpants and a plain black shirt, wearing a Boston red socks cap with her curly brown hair coming out as a ponytail. Her cap is pulled down so no one can see the tears swell up in her beautiful blue eyes. The students around her pay no attention to her as she sits in the center of the room with her hands on either side of her face, as though trying to block everyone out. The teacher hands a copy of the local newspaper to the class to look through. Amanda’s head rises slightly, only to see that day’s headline LOCAL MALE KILLED IN TRAGIC COLLISION and she stared at the picture of a ’96 Chevy Camaro, or what was left of it anyways. The local male, was a senior at the high school and on the varsity football team. The class immediately start to talk about how they knew the beloved and highly respected, Chris. Amanda put her head down as she tried not to hear everything that was said, as she cried on her desk. In the back of the room, a voice said “No one can miss him more than I do” Amanda stood up abruptly and shouted to the class “None of you know sadness like I do!” as tears poured down her face, she ran straight out of the class room without even a glance at anyone. She slammed the classroom door. She kept running, down the hall and around the corner, she finally slowed to a stop in front of locker 517 and turns the lock 30-13-25. The locker had 3 books in it Trigonometry, Chemistry, and Literature. With a magnet, stuck to the door a note that said in big red letters I LOVE YOU!, and a picture of a tall blond, muscular, guy wearing a white #42 KHS football jersey, and on his back was a smiling girl with curly brown hair and beautiful blue eyes. At the bottom of the locker was a big bag, on it said HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! She removed the paper and pulled out a teddy bear holding a red heart, and around the bear's neck was a gold heart locket, engraved in the front was Mandy I love you she opened the locket and a little piece of paper fell out, she picked it up and looked in the locket and a picture of the tall blond guy and curly brown hair with beautiful blue eyes girl kissing. Tears started to fall down Amanda's face. She opened up the little piece of paper that said Do you like it? There’s more! she put the note down and reached into the bag and pulled out a ring box, she held her heart and opened it. A diamond ring sat there being hugged by the fabric, and another note Will you marry me?-Chris. Tears poured down her face, and she put the ring on her left ring finger, looked up at the sky “YES!" She sighed and took off the ring "If only I could" She looked at the sky and cried out "Why did you have to leave me?" She knelt on the cold tile floor put her face in her hands and cried, harder than she ever had before. From around the corner, walked a tall, muscular, guy who was oddly dark for being a red-head. His name was Ryan and he was Chris’s best friend. As soon as Ryan saw Amanda knelt on the ground crying, he ran over to her, he knelt on the ground besides her. Amanda turned and looked at him, she opened her mouth slightly obviously searching for words to say, but she failed to say anything, only a faint humming sound came out. The two of them sat in silence for awhile. Breaking the silence, Ryan said “I know how you feel, I loved him too, obviously not in the same way you did, but I did! Chris was like my brother” there was more silence as Ryan held back tears, he continued “That night, after we won, the first thing out of his mouth was ‘I can’t wait to tell Mandy!’ all the football guys were piling into each other’s cars. We were all going to celebrate at Applebee’s. Chris told us that he would be late, because he had to drive down to the school; he really wanted to tell you how we had won the game and fill you in on everything. Before the game he told me how excited he was to go see the play. He said that he felt bad because he could only go and support you every so often and how you came to almost every one of the football games.” Ryan paused a moment but kept going after he was sure Amanda head nothing to say “I remember the day he first saw you; it was freshman year, the very first day of high school. It was lunch time, and we had been wondering around the cafeteria for a long time, when you walked right passed him, he nudged me in the side and told me you would be his next girlfriend and for the next two weeks he found out anything he could about you and the day he asked you out, word was that Mark was going to ask you out, Chris was so mad and wound up locking Mark in his locker. Chris didn’t want anyone asking you out before he could” Amanda smiled, and wiped away her tears. She now had something to say “The first time he told me he loved me, that might have been the happiest moment in my life. I remember it like it was yesterday. My parents were out of town, and I had to take care of my sisters, they both had fallen asleep. Chris came over because I was trying to clean the house up after my sisters and I were baking all day. He called me and told me he was coming over to help me clean up. We were cleaning up the food colouring off the kitchen floor and he leaned forward and kissed me and said ‘I know that we are only in high school, but I have never felt this way before, there is no doubting that I’m in love with you’ I remember how my heart jumped, and at that very moment I felt like I could fly, every time he told me that he loved me my heart always skipped a beat.” Ryan smirked a little, as if he knew. The principal walked by at that very moment “You two need to get to” stopping for a second realizing who they were, he changed his tone “Oh well never mind, I’m sorry about your loses” and he swiftly walked away, sensing the emotional moment. Amanda turned her eyes away from their principal, who was walking away, but her eyes didn’t wander back to Ryan, as his did her. Amanda stared down at her stomach, rubbing it every so often, and then she cried. She cried hard, the tears would not stop, however she had the happiest of smiles drawn across her face. Ryan just looked at her, not knowing what exactly she was thinking, but himself thinking that she was just thinking of a moment her and Chris had shared. Amanda’s smile slowly faded, but it did not disappear, you could still sense the happiness in her face. Her tears slowly diminished, but the sadness could also still be seen on her face. She took her hands off her stomach, slowly, and looked over at Ryan, and whispered “I’m pregnant” Ryan’s mouth dropped and his eyes grew huge “WHAT?!?” in response Amanda said, slightly louder, but not much “I told Chris 3 days before the crash. We promised each other that we wouldn’t tell a soul, until I was ready to. I thought that you deserved to know, Chris wanted to tell you really badly, he wanted to share his happiness with someone” she stopped and waited for a response, when nothing came out of Ryan’s mouth, she went on “We talked a long time about it, we want you to be the godfather.” Again she paused, it was a long pause, but Ryan again said nothing. “Would you want to be?” Ryan blurted out “WOW! ummm yes!” Amanda smiled, and again rubbed her tummy, as Ryan started to express his feelings of the matter “I just can’t believe that a part of Chris is still here, I take it then you are keeping it?” Amanda began to respond but Ryan interrupted her “That was dumb question; of course you are, if you want me to be the godfather. Wow! This is great!” Amanda smiled a little bit "I just don't know what I’m going to do when it arrives" Ryan nodded, as if he understood, but Amanda quickly disagreed "You don't understand, I’m going to look at my baby everyday and see his face. How am I supposed to find a place to live and get a job while still raising a baby?" "Well..." Ryan was holding back on something. Amanda stared him down until he cracked "Well... I think it was last year, Chris told me that I had to promise him that if something were to ever happen to him... that I would make sure you were taken care of" They shared a look, he continued. "I plan on keeping that promise" She just looked at him, saying nothing. He had nothing more to elaborate on the subject, so they just sat there. The school bell rang, indicating that second block was now over. Students, freshman to seniors, poured out of their classes. A lot of them, not quite stopping but rapidly slowing, to stare at the two seniors sitting on the floor under an open locker. An, obviously shy, sophomore girl, wearing jeans and a green shirt promoting recycling stood in front of them. Ryan showed his frustration in his voice “Excuse you?!?" The girl started to slowly sulk away. When Amanda got up "I'm sorry, he didn't know, we'll move" She turned to Ryan "This is her locker" Amanda grabbed the bag placing her birthday gifts back into it. And shut the locker door. She then turned to Ryan, "Could you drive me home today?" He instantaneously, without thinking about it at all "Of course ... did you want to leave now?" She thought about it for awhile, "No, I think I can make it through the day... I think" He gave her a hug “okay, I’ll meet you here after school... but just come and find me if you can't make it through the day, okay?" she picked up her stuff "Promise" and they both turned and walked to their appropriate class.